Come on Ilyana, you can do it!

Here we are at 38 weeks pregnant and I'm understanding more and more just how much of an understatement it is to say a woman gets "uncomfortable" near the end of pregnancy! Walking (waddling), moving, coughing, laughing, rolling over, it all hurts! My feet and ankles have swollen to monstrous proportions (which sometimes can be a sign of pre-eclampsia, but my blood pressure has been excellent) and they hurt to walk on! At my appointment this morning, my doctor wasn't fond of how swollen my feet were getting so she decided to strip my membranes in hopes that I'll go into labor. Membrane stripping is essentially where the doctor separates the amniotic sack from the wall of the cervix. This can cause the body to release prostaglandins which makes the body go into labor. Membrane stripping is supposedly more effective if the cervix is already somewhat dilated and effaced. Currently I am at 4 cm, "very thin", and Ilyana's head is engaged. Here's to hoping and praying that it works! The good news, if it doesn't work, is that my OB felt very confident that I'll go into labor sometime this week. Of course it's all guess work, but I'm hoping she's right! She also said that once I'm 39 weeks, if I go into labor and go to the hospital they will keep me even if my contractions slow down again. I'm glad, it's pretty disappointing to keep getting sent home with no baby! I've now gone in to the hospital twice with contractions (third times a charm, right?!). I went in again last Thursday morning. I had started having horrible back labor and contractions about 2 minutes apart around 11 pm on Wednesday. I tried laying down, walking around, drinking lots of water, taking a warm bath/shower, and they kept going. Finally we went in around 3 am on Thursday. They were consistently 1.5-2 minutes apart, pain to the point that I couldn't help but cry through them, we were sure that this had to be the real deal! We got there and I was dilated to 4 cm but her head wasn't engaged so they had me walk around for a few hours in hopes that my water would break, but instead, after an hour or so the contractions started to slow down, yet again. They checked me again before I left and said that her head did engage during that time though. So basically I keep going into early labor and having it stop (the nurse said it's not considered false labor since the contractions are causing me to progress).

In other exciting news, our house is coming along quickly! All of the walls are up, the electrician was in the other day, the plummer should be in this week, and we got to pick out all the colors, flooring, counters, etc. the other day! It was so much fun! Assuming everything stays on track, they are hoping to have it completed in April! We are so excited to be moved in to our new house!

Information about Ilyana:
EDD: February 27th (11 days)

How mom is feeling: Uncomfortable. Come on Ilyana, you can do it!

How dad is feeling: Excited for Ilyana to be out and for baby snuggles! And sad that Ash is so uncomfortable all the time!